Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans, Episode 4 "Knife to the Heart" Gameplay Breakdown

 "I'm pissed!"

-Charlie Davis

To any celebrities that want to get involved in Survivor in the future...don't.  It's one thing if you want to play the game.  I'm fine with that, but beyond that, you aren't needed or wanted here.  Once we got past the Zac Brown stuff, the final chunk of the episode was great!  But the Reward dragged badly, especially for those of us who aren't Zac Brown fans.  Maybe if they had brought some My Chemical Romance out to Fiji, I'd feel differently lol.  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Starting on Cila, tribal challenges are usually a team effort.  I don't factor them in much unless someone does something on their own to win the challenge or lose it.  I just wanted to quickly mention Jonathan flipping the boat over on his own to get the water out.  It didn't get them 1st place, but it did help Cila win Immunity.

It wasn't anything he did in this episode, but Rizo's actions on his original tribe paid off here.  Genevieve found another Boomerang Idol and sent it to him, so he must have done something right.

Speaking of Genevieve, she's the only person from Kalo I have here.  She found the Boomerang Idol and never had the opportunity to watch Survivor 49, so she had no way of knowing how dangerous Rizo is with an Idol, so I won't fault her for that.

Moving on to Vatu, Stephenie started the episode off strong when they returned from voting out Q.  Stephenie was very gracious about being left out of the vote and simply acted thankful to still be in the game.  That was exactly the right play for her.  She didn't panic, kept her head down, and let the rest of the tribe tear itself apart.  She seized the opportunity to help take out Mike, which is great for her as it breaks up the David vs. Goliath trio.

Who Sucked:

I only have Vatu castaways to talk about in this section.  Angelina may have survived the vote, but she lost her closest ally and the only person who voted with her at this Tribal Council.

Emily needs to chill out.  I get that she wants to keep Ozzy close to her, but shooting her mouth off the way she did could have destroyed the plan.  And since her name was the one being thrown out by Mike, destroying the plan to save her isn't ideal for her game.  After nearly blowing it, I wouldn't have blamed Christian at all if he sided with Mike and took out Emily.  She's proving herself to be a bad ally.  Now, she didn't end up blowing it and and survived the vote, but she's playing with so much fire.

I think Mike had a really good point about Emily being similar to Gabby.  I know that hurt Christian to hear, but he had the wrong reaction to Mike saying that.  Mike White is a massive target, but probably can't win the game.  He's a great person to keep around, especially for Christian since they played together.  Flipping on Mike was a bad move for him, even if I love the 3-2-1 vote.  Christian's best move would have been to try and keep things simple and take out Stephenie.  After Emily nearly destroyed the plan, I would have been okay with him taking her out instead.  Either of them would have been a better call than Mike.

Ozzy set his sights on Angelina from the start of the episode and didn't let go.  I just don't understand why he was so confident in that plan.  It's a tribe of six and three of them were on a season together.  On paper, why would Mike, Angelina, and Christian turn on each other?  Who did Ozzy think would turn on Angelina?  He was so set on this plan that he went fishing instead of hanging around to strategize, which is something that has taken him down before.  He was completely left out of the vote and the only one to vote for Angelina.

We really didn't get enough from Charlie, Cirie, Dee, Kamilla, Devens, Aubry, Chrissy, Coach, Colby, Joe, or Tiffany for me to say either way.

As for Mike, I don't think he should have been the target here, but he did help overcomplicate this vote.  It really should have been Stephenie.  Mike wants Ozzy to stay.  Christian wants Emily to stay.  Who cares about Stephenie?  I think Mike tried to get a little too cute, but it was still the wrong move to vote him out.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick for being so gracious after being blindsided in the last episode, keeping her head down, and helping to take out Mike.

Worst Player of the Episode was tough.  Christian, Emily, and Ozzy were all options, but I settled on Ozzy Lusth for his poor math, being overconfident in his plan, and being left out of the vote.

With two tribes going to Tribal Council next week, hopefully there won't be any celebrity nonsense to get in the way of the strategy and chaos.  All three tribes could be really interesting.  I think the fractured Vatu may be the tribe I want to see lose the most, but how cool would it be if they pulled off an Immunity win here?